Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-10
MINORITY.
COMMITTEE ROOM,

COMM TTEE ROOM,
AUSTIN, TEN, Jan. %, 1857.
To Hon. I. Is. Wheeler, President of the Senate
The undersigned, member OF the
finance committee, to whom was referred
Senate bill No. l2l, bill to be entitled
"An act to amend sections l, 3 and of
the act of March II, 1881, to regulate the
sale of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors,
or medicated bitters, and other purposes"
being unable to concur in the report of q
majority of the committee, herewith sub
mits minority report.
The majority report favors striking out
sections l and of the bill.
The only change in the present law
sought to be effected by the sections so
stricken out is to increase the present &C.
cupation tax for selling liquors, to-wit {:
To raise tax on saloons from $500 to
$1,000; on sales of less than five gallons
from S2C0 to $3.50, and on sales more
than five gallons, from $500 to $500, and
on sales of beer exclusively, from $50 to
500.
To sustain the report of the majority
of the committee leaves the taxes at
what they are at present.
Without insisting upon the amounts
designated in the bill, the undersigned
would respectfully submit that the reasons
in favor of increasing the occupation
tax on the sales of liquor are, in his
Judgment, so strong and grave as to well
merit a most careful consideration by
the Senate of Texas.
If it be true, as asserted by legal au-
thorities, that the object of this class of
occupation tax is not revenue only, but
the regulation Of traffic, for the proven
ton OF intemperanCe, pauperism and
crime, it must be confessed that the
present occupation tax is inadequate to eff
feet such result, for certainly there is
neither Liminution in number nor improve
ment in character since the adoption of
the statute, and to-day almost all towns
and cities in the state are crowded with
low dives, nickel saloons and other like
disreputable resorts.
Ifthese places were content simply to
lure in and debauCh the inexperienced
and the young, we might leave to the
churches and religious societies the task
of reclaiming the fallen as contended by
some philanthropists of the day, but it is
undeniable that these places do exercise
q strong political influence, and always
potent for evil in all elections and issues
submitted to the people, and ct every re-
curing election send forth their votaries
and partisans, gathered mainly from the
lowest walks of life, the illiterate and
dissolute, to vote against the conserva
tive and better element of society.
A sense, therefore, of the obligation
resting upon US as legislators, to preserve
the purity of the ballot chat it should be
untrammeled, fair and free demands
that we do something to restrain the
working of traffic fraught with so much
mischief to society aud state.
The undersigned believes that the in
crease of the occupation tax, by its ten
dency to drive out low dives, is the true
line of progress to political purity and
moral growth in the cities and towns of
Texas-that while local option is sutt-
Gent and effective in the rural districts.
it is powerless in the larger centers of
population.
It is claimed that the law as it exists is
not executed in some sections of the
state, but this is simply the negligence
of the officers. 1t is certainly executed
ia most localities throughout the state,
yet the result Is the same.
It is submitted in behalf of the minority
that the legislation suggested. is neither
new nor experimental. In our sister
state of Missouri the lowest tax is $3.50
and the highest $500, and in his last
message Governor Marmaduke claims
that since Missouri has abandoned her
low taxation of 1879 there has been gain
of 100000 in the revenues derived
therefrom and decrease of 1000 saloons,
and an obvious decrease in crime and
violation of law and good order.
For these reasons the undersigned sub
mits that this matter should be carefully
weighed by the Senate before adopting the
majority report, and operation of the
high license tax as it exists in other states
closely looked into before final action
thereon. All of which is respectfully
submitted. DOUGLASS of Grayson.